British girl tries to sell grandma on eBay

Any parent these days worries about how their children might misuse the Internet. Will they bully classmates on Facebook? Post inappropriate photos on MySpace? Put their grandmother up for sale on eBay?

The latter might sound far-fetched but this is exactly what a 10-year-old girl in Britain attempted to do. Zoe Pemberton told the Daily Mail that her efforts to sell her grandmother on the online auction site were a joke, but many people seemed to take the prank seriously. Bids reached more than $32,000 before the listing was shut down for not complying with sales policies.

In her listing, Pemberton offered up details about her grandma, Marian Goodall. She referred to her as “annoying and moaning a lot,” yet “very cuddly and loves word searches.”

What provoked Pemberton to put her grandmother up for auction?

“She was annoying me,” Pemberton told the Daily Mail. “She was moaning at me. I was on the laptop and suddenly thought I’d put her on eBay.”

The father says his daughter told him about what she had done. “She called me over, pressed the confirm button, and said, “‘I’ve put Nan on eBay,'” Thomas Pemberton told the Mail. “I couldn’t believe it. I had no idea she knew how to do it. She had even got a picture of my mum.”

Pemberton’s dad never imagined that his daughter would know how to use eBay. Have your children ever surprised you with their Internet intelligence? How have your children misused the Internet?